schreier
2016-06-19, 04:08 PM
Reading it - it seems unclear regarding the need to have a companion previously.
In the Wild Shape section, it explicitly says "If you do not already possess the ability, you gain no new ability to wild shape. However, you add your arcane hierophant level to your druid level and gain the wild shape ability of a druid of the resulting level"
...
But in the companion section it says "Upon becoming an arcane hierophant, you must dismiss your familiar, if you have one ...." and "You may retain any one animal companion you already possess. You add your arcane hierophant class level to your druid or ranger level for purposes of determining your animal companion’s bonus"
The lack of "gain no new ability" and "add your arcane hierophant class level..." seems to indicate that you should be able to gain a companion even if you don't have the ability previously (you could have traded it away, taken a variant druid class, or used an archivist).
My thought is 0 (Druid levels) + 1 (arcane hierophant) would have a 1st level druid companion.
Also - what happens if you take a wild shape class after the arcane hierophant? For example:
Domain Wizard 3 / Archivist 5 / Holt Warden 3 / Arcane Hierophant 1 / Lion of Talisid 3 -- I believe that holt warden will grant trackless step - giving access to arcane hierophant. Arcane Hierophant will grant an animal companion, then Lion of Talisid would grant Wild Shape and retroactively add the hierophant level. At that point, it would only count as druid level 2 ... but if you went Hierophant 6 total - you would have druid 7 wild shape, right?
At that point, you would have arcane caster 9 / archivist 17 ... with wild shape druid 7 (lion-2+hierophant) ... companion familiar of familiar 9 (wizard+hierophant) / 9 companion (lion+hierophant)
Druid 5 would be a faster route, but I liked the more academic and versatile achivist
In the Wild Shape section, it explicitly says "If you do not already possess the ability, you gain no new ability to wild shape. However, you add your arcane hierophant level to your druid level and gain the wild shape ability of a druid of the resulting level"
...
But in the companion section it says "Upon becoming an arcane hierophant, you must dismiss your familiar, if you have one ...." and "You may retain any one animal companion you already possess. You add your arcane hierophant class level to your druid or ranger level for purposes of determining your animal companion’s bonus"
The lack of "gain no new ability" and "add your arcane hierophant class level..." seems to indicate that you should be able to gain a companion even if you don't have the ability previously (you could have traded it away, taken a variant druid class, or used an archivist).
My thought is 0 (Druid levels) + 1 (arcane hierophant) would have a 1st level druid companion.
Also - what happens if you take a wild shape class after the arcane hierophant? For example:
Domain Wizard 3 / Archivist 5 / Holt Warden 3 / Arcane Hierophant 1 / Lion of Talisid 3 -- I believe that holt warden will grant trackless step - giving access to arcane hierophant. Arcane Hierophant will grant an animal companion, then Lion of Talisid would grant Wild Shape and retroactively add the hierophant level. At that point, it would only count as druid level 2 ... but if you went Hierophant 6 total - you would have druid 7 wild shape, right?
At that point, you would have arcane caster 9 / archivist 17 ... with wild shape druid 7 (lion-2+hierophant) ... companion familiar of familiar 9 (wizard+hierophant) / 9 companion (lion+hierophant)
Druid 5 would be a faster route, but I liked the more academic and versatile achivist